Pune: The first day of Ganeshotsav on Monday recorded a 21% increase in the Metro ridership compared to the same day last year, with over 2.62 lakh riders.The first day of Ganeshotsav saw a ridership of 2.16 lakh in 2025. Kunal Raut, a Kothrud resident, along with his five friends, was among the hundreds of others who took the Metro to reach the city’s central areas for darshan of famous Ganapati mandals.Kunal said their group travelled to PMC Metro station in the evening. After completing pandal hopping, they all returned to Vanaz station around 10.30pm. There was a significant rush to Metro trains, and it was likely to increase in the next few days, Kunal said.Metro officials said they have started running trains at a 5-minute interval during rush hours and that they would operate more trains on both routes if footfall continues to rise.The commuters, however, said the Metro administration should set up more kiosks to issue instant tickets to reduce queues at the counters. People prefer cash transactions in case of delays in online payments; hence, the kiosks should be made operational at all key stations, they said.Officials said the commuters preferred to travel to Mandai and other nearby stations on Monday. The most commuters travelled from Civil Court Metro station (59,000), followed by Mandai station (51,000). “We were expecting a little drop in footfall for the next couple of days, but the rush was likely to go up towards the weekend, especially from Friday,” an official said.“The trains were going to run beyond midnight from Friday to ease commuting by metro. The trains would halt at all the stations during extended hours of operation. Commuters can board the trains from any station as per their convenience. Additional staff would be in place as per requirements,” the official said.The administration has also appealed to the commuters to use online ticketing to avoid the rush.
